These UPDATES were a project of Pain Treatment Topics; Stewart B. Leavitt, MA, PhD, publisher/editor. Our mission was to serve as a noncommercial resource for healthcare professionals & their patients, providing open access to clinical news, information, research, and education with a focus on better understandings of evidence-based pain-management practices. New postings and comments were discontinued as of January 2014.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tai Chi, a low-impact martial art, has been associated with significant improvements in balance, strength, flexibility, cardiovascular and respiratory function, as well as pain reduction and improved quality of life. Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, conducted a systematic review demonstrating that Tai Chi also benefits psychological health.

COMMENT:Definitive conclusions were limited due to variations in study designs and group comparisons, heterogeneous outcomes, and inadequate controls. Therefore, high-quality, well-controlled, and longer-term randomized trials would be helpful to better inform clinical decisions. Overall, however, Tai Chi appears to be associated with improvements in psychological well-being that could be important for persons with chronic pain conditions. This also is an area ripe for brain imaging studies to determine if the psychological improvements due to Tai Chi correspond with an amelioration of detrimental changes in brain structure and function in persons with chronic pain conditions.

UPDATES/Website Information

About Sources & URL Links:Unless expressing personal experience or opinion, UPDATES contributors must give resource references for the health or medical facts noted and, when relevant and available, URL links must be provided. URL links open in a new window, and access was checked prior to posting; however, some may change and not function in the future, which is beyond our control.